A TOUCH SLOW. (31/07/14)

I was very late going out this morning as I was waiting for the rain to clear. The dogs had a good time as they found their friend or one of the many.

I did try to take some video. I pressed the AF-ON button to focus and heard it click but it didn’t focus the lens as the camera was in servo focus and for some reason it doesn’t in video or live view. Not to worry it didn’t look up to much even taking blurry into account.   Molly having a paddle. I hope they can last till September but they are both a bit too hairy. They don’t mind but it’s the sand, water and muck they bring back home that I object to. They also need a good brushing which deposits more crap in the van.

    Alfie misjudged his paddling and a wave landed on him. He wanders along in a little world of his own then seems surprised when a wave crashes round his ears. He is getting a good swimmer when the occasion warrants.

   This is Zeb. He is a bit big but he rarely runs at full speed so they can chase him with relative ease. It’s a very noisy business but it does tire them out and give me peace for an hour or two.

We came back and I fed the dogs. I looked at the weather forecast and it’s giving heavy showers and moderately strong northerly or north easterly winds for tomorrow and Saturday. With a bit of luck the swell will build.

I want some long exposure shots so thought I’d have a wander out to have a practise or practice or a rehearsal. I do know the difference. The first and last are correct. Unless one is talking about lawyers, politicians or bankers they just practise law, governing and banking.

It did occur to me the other day that with a ten stop filter on then time isn’t at all critical. I have read several tutorials and the pedants always seem to make a meal out of calculating exposure times. What does it matter whether it is 20s or 60s? I have at least 3 stops to play with on a RAW file. It is just a suck it and see job the only difference time makes is how smooth and smokey you would like the water and clouds to be.

I did several; all shot at 100 ISO and f16 and varied the shutter time. I am a bit slow as I don’t even need to time it accurately. Open the shutter have a quick glance at my watch then close it when I like. It’s really easy, it’s like I imagine large format to be. It’s how it was, pop the film in the tray and watch. Pull it out when it’s ready. Just like cooking. Don’t rely on the clock, use your eyes.

Were I doing it in low light then I would take a black frame so that I could get rid of noise or any naughty hot pixels. I suspect again that as long as the black frame is taken while the sensor is still warm an exposure of roughly the same length would do. I don’t like in camera noise reduction it seems to soften images which is a bit daft when one is paying ridiculous money for serious lenses. It is a little bit silly taking long exposures to soften the job but at least the static bits are sharp or sharpish.

Slow: Me?…Always have been. In primary school the teachers used to say. “Master Ward do you really want to be a Bin Man?” I had to spend longer in school listening to crap from them than the Binmen spent at work.The two Binmen I knew were finished and in the pub for lunch time everyday so although I didn’t dare say; it did have a certain appeal. Better than teaching or farming for sure.

    This one is 22 seconds.

    This one is 55 seconds. I also flipped it horizontally as I prefer the foreground leading from the right.

I’m waiting for my new external hard drive. Then I’ll declutter the drives on the laptop. If I'm feeling really enthusiastic I’ll do it properly put stuff in folders by genre and year and quarter year. I never really bother saving pictures methodically as I have little interest once I’ve processed them. Don’t know why it’s just how I am……. A bone idle binman perhaps.

I called at the shop for bread and milk and spent two pounds on a lottery ticket for Friday's draw. If I win I am going to get a 5K video recorder. The frames are big enough to use as stills. How long before there are affordable 8K cameras? Not long I shouldn’t think.

 If I don’t post tomorrow then have a great weekend.